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Wednesday's Powerball a $500 million (or more) payoff

The Powerball has rolled over 16 times since October 6, propelling Wednesday's jackpot to at least $500 million. Lottery officials expect a huge surge in Wednesday ticket sales leading up to 11 p.m. drawing.

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Wednesday's Powerball a $500 million (or more) payoff

Winning Powerball jackpot is a numbers game

Wednesday night's Powerball jackpot has many Americans running to their nearest convenience store to pick that elusive winning combination. Here are the numbers most and least chosen in Powerball drawings since Jan. 18, 2012, when this current game began.

"Typically, 60% of sales occur the last day,'' says Chuck Strutt, executive director of the Multi-State Lottery Association. "We'll see how many people decide to play $500 million."

Based on soaring Sunday and Monday ticket sales, the MSLA decided Tuesday to boost the Powerball jackpot from an already record $425 million to an eye-popping half-billion dollars. And that could go up again by Wednesday. Strutt expects ticket sales will average 6.3 million an hour.

Sales in 42 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands will halt about an hour before the drawing, scheduled for 10:59 ET.

Wednesday's jackpot is the second-biggest ever. A $656 million Mega Millions jackpot was won by three ticketholders in March.

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Former Powerball winners answer questions about how to handle the big winnings and avoid common pitfalls.

The odds of matching six winning Powerball numbers are tiny - just 1 in 175 million. But that isn't stopping scores of dreamers from plunking down $2 per ticket. As Colorado State Lottery director Abel Tapia notes, "We're in the luck business. What we sell is dreams."

Another Sioux Falls resident, Melanie Sides says she never plays the lottery, but lured by the whopping payoff, snapped up five tickets, one for each of her kids. "I'd buy each one a house and car and stick the rest into investments," Sides says.

At Schrader's Country Store in Fort Collins, Colo., a trickle of lottery ticket buyers grew heavier as the day progressed. " I'd help out my family" with the jackpot, says Jim Mayhugh, an Indianan who travels the country constructing radio towers. "I'm not a gambling guy, but with that kind of money, there's a lot of people I could help out,'' says Mayhugh, 46.

Sudan native Kebe Jaden bought two tickets in Des Moines, where he works in an auto parts factory. "I want to get big money to make my life easy," says Jaden, 39.

In Greenville, S.C., Darrell Taunton, a 60-year-old retiree, says he'd take care of his mother, pay off bills and "pump some money into the neighborhood."

James Beard, a piano mover and cook, says he would "give a lot of it away…to the poor." A sizeable jackpot would change his life much, but "I might drink a little bit more brandy," says Beard, 54.

At a Satellite Beach, FL., Exxon station, clerk John Messih said Tuesday ticket sales were strong, but predicts "it's going to be crazy" Wednesday.

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Lamar Fallie buys six Powerball tickets at a BP gas station Nov. 28 in Calumet Park, Ill. Fallie, who is unemployed, said he doesn't normally play the lottery but was lured by the $550 million jackpot. M. Spencer Green, AP